(Original Title: La maldición de Frankenstein) Jesús Franco directs this madness - and it really does feel like a madman's hallucination. Dr. Frankenstein's daughter is compelled into the service of a sorcerer and his bird woman (!) to create a master race of monsters.
Morpho (Jesús Franco) is his Igor
Melisa is a naked bird woman created by the sorcerer Cagliostro come to kill Frankenstein.
Anne Libert plays this one up - clucking, cawing, screeching like a bird
He tells his pathetic naked servants to begone
Cagliostro and Melisa have plans to make a master race of Frankenstein monsters
Vera wants to learn his secrets
Madame Orloff (Carmen Yazalde) is assisted by her servant Bertha
Frankenstein's monster enters her bedroom and abducts Madame Orloff
Madame Orloff is taken as sacrifice for the blood rites of Cagliostro and Melisa
It's a Franco film, so you know you're gonna get the bush-zoom.
The ghoulish cultists assemble
Madame Orloff is beheaded
Vera works with Abigail to get the secrets from her dead father.
Vera Frankenstein is taken captive
The inspector and Seward talk to a shaken Abigail to learn where Vera has been taken.
Cagliostro and Melisa hold another special event
Caronte and Vera are whipped by the monster while standing naked on floor covered in spikes.
It's a crowd pleaser
Okay, now it's the moment of truth. Vera, under Cagliostro and Melisa's control, is to resurrect a mate for Frankenstein's monster.
This creation consists of Madame Orloff's head and Maura's body.
The Madame Orloff/Maura combo is electrocuted to life.
Melisa feeds on a prisoner
The Madame Orloff monster is now positioned for Frankenstein's monster to mount.
Quite a view from Carmen Yazalde.
Frankenstein's monster is ready to get busy with Orloff when there's an interruption.
The inspector arrives and starts wasting everyone.
The monster takes Vera with him.
Franco is at the height of his powers delivering some incredible visuals and a psychotic creativity that simply would not be allowed to exist today. What the fuck was up with a bird woman?... i.e. a naked Anne Libert with a cape and a few fake green feathers? I don't know, but I was eating it up from start to finish. If only it had been more engaging as a story, this would be an all time winner for seventies Euro-horror.
★★★★★★★☆☆☆7/10
I believe this was Lina Romay's first appearance in a Jess Franco film. She has a very small part as a peasant girl (if I remember correctly - it's been years since I've seen this one). Some cuts of the film leave her storyline out all together, though.
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